One Step Ahead
by Traw
Summary: Four bodies lay in Ducky's morgue, and the body count keeps rising. Can Gibbs and the team find the serial killer who always seems one step ahead, or will one of their own become one of his victims?


Rubbing his tired face with his hand in an effort to wipe away the exhaustion he was feeling, he paused a moment and looked towards the small steel doors that lined the far wall and sighed, in the last few hours he had placed three bodies on the refrigerated body trays hidden behind them, soon a fourth body would be joining them. Tonight, sadly, was turning into a very busy night for murder. he sighed again as he looked back down and slipped the needle through his young 'patient's' skin, before pulling the needle through and expertly tying the last stitch to close the incision before he placed the suturing needle back into the tray and then gently covered the body with a white sheet. He turned as he heard the autopsy room door swished open and Jethro Gibbs entered.

Looking up at the ceiling, he whispered a silent prayer that the sheet-covered man now lying on his table would be the last unfortunate victim tonight before he watched the lead NCIS agent approach the autopsy table. Aware of why Gibbs had come, he lifted the sheet back, he revealed the raw, ragged wounds of violence inflicted upon this victim and his own neatly sutured incisions. Death was something that he dealt intimately with daily but no one deserved the horrors this young sailor had endured.

He knew that the man who had inflicted such barbaric torture was also responsible for at least three more of his customers tonight. He was also acutely aware that the four bodies in various states of decomposition that the team had found buried in the clearing tonight could just be the first few victims of a mass murderer. "You know Jethro, even after twenty years of being a Medical Examiner, I sometimes find myself shocked and horrified at the savagery that some people can and do inflicted upon others." Ducky began as Gibbs reached the table, "I don't think I have ever seen such brutality as this but I do remember one case in Bradford. It was many years ago…"

"Duck!" Gibbs demanded impatiently.

Ignoring the lead agent's impatience, Ducky looked back at the victim as he summarized his report, "Our young guest here was systematically and savagely beaten, possibly pummeled with fists and kicked, as well as tortured with a knife," Pointing to several deep cuts that criss-crossed the chest as he explained, "The cuts are not deep enough to cause serious injury but are deep enough to cause extreme pain. Whoever did this wanted to prolong his suffering as long as they could." Ducky continued with his grisly report without pausing as he rolled the body onto its side revealing the man's lacerated back. "He was also whipped, probably as he was hanging by his arms. There are rope burns, lacerations and contusions around both wrists. But Jethro, just like the others, cause of death was not caused by shock or by the injuries sustained by the beating or even by blood loss but by manual strangulation. The killer strangled him from the front, possibly while the victim was still conscious and looking at him."

"So our perp liked watching his victims' faces as he killed them?" Gibbs murmured.

"Ohh yes. It probably gave him a sense of power over life and death." The Medical Examiner explained.

"Time of death?"

Lifting up the sheet and carefully re- covering the body, Ducky answered, "Between five and seven this morning. The poor boy was tortured for several hours before he finally succumbed." Turning and walking back to the desk near the door, Ducky sighed again as he picked up his completed report and passed it to the lead agent, "Whoever did this, Jethro, is one very sick individual. I know you will catch him as fast as you can but please, try and catch him before he does this to another victim."

"We're trying Ducky!" Gibbs reassured the Medical Examiner as he accepted the slim file.

Ducky nodded, aware that Gibbs and the team would do leave no stone unturned in their search for this killer. He watched Gibbs turn and hurry out of the door before he turned back towards the sheet covered body on the tablet as he told the young sailor softly, "They will find your killers, my young friend, and hopefully before he can strike again."


End file.
